🌞 Summer is here! 🌞

 

Ready to step into the season with style and wellness?
✔️ Stay hydrated after every class.
✔️ Fill your plate with fresh, seasonal meals.
✔️ Gear up with breathable, stylish dance wear.

Find everything you need for your summer classes at The Ballet Shop! 🩰
👉 Check out our collection here: The Ballet Shop

Let’s dance through summer together! 💃✨

New Articles on our Official Blog

 It's been a while, indeed it has! We've been busy updating our website and creating new content to make it an exciting place to visit!

If you take a look at The Ballet Shop's website, you will see we've updated it quite a bit.

First off, we have started with our dancer focuses.  On some days, we publuish the story of an iconic ballerina.  On others, we choose men in ballet to highlight their contribution too.  Check out our blog for more information!

Our latest article features Dame Beryl Grey.  Read up and leave some comments.

If you are interested in dance, make sure to head over to our shop to see what we've got on offer.

True Love and Spiritualism

 Whatever nature it takes, love requires management - of one's own way of being first.  To love another, you have to know how to care for yourself first. The old cliche, that you cannot fill from an empty jug, comes to mind, but it is, of course true.

So, based on a recent experience that threw me, I delved into Thich Nhat Than's book, True Love, a veritable manual of how to deal with human relationships, the Buddhist way. I was brought up the Catholic way and I cannot say I've ever been given such an easy-to-follow and helpful 'manual' to human relationships. All I got, from my Catholic background, is a mountain of (sometimes-unwarranted) expectations from others, that have sometimes placed my relationships into question.

Naturally, the ones that give the most trouble are the ones where one is most invested. That's a true and painful admission. But the lessons you learn for 'romantic' love, can easily be translated into other forms of relationships.

The four basic principles of love that this book outlines are:

- loving-kindness - the ability to bring joy to the other

- compassion - the ability to ease the other's pain

- joy - if there is suffering, that is not love.

- equanimity or freedom - when you love someone, you bring that person freedom.

These are, in themselves, worthy of lengthy thought.  These 4 simple rules are important for any form of love - familial, friendship, deeper attachment.

UnMasked - Recovering Post-COVID

 I have not written here in a while, the confines of trying to keep busy during the last one and a half years while locked inside having driven me crazy.

My COVID journey was long. Less than one week into the dreaded limited human contact (not a full lockdown but schools and offices and everything else, were closed on 17 March 2020), I fell of my bicycle and went into 6 weeks of using a steel brace and crutches as I was unable to get anyone to see my injury. Finally, an orthopaedic surgeon advised that if I wore the brace any longer I risked a thrombosis; and that I should do some gentle walking and swimming.

I'd already tried some swimming and gentle walking and this was all the impetus I needed. The ballet shop suffered because I was unable to climb 4 flights of stairs to the little outlet; but the online sales continued to the extent that people were still dancing. Not much of course - reduced or no classes at all, reduced salaries for some. It all adds up.

This year we are appearing to go back to the life we once knew, with classes carrying on - with masks, if you please, but carrying on. The performing arts get a new lease of life.

We still have some uniforms sourced from UK with pre-Brexit prices as they are on our shelves since before Brexit.  Other EU-sourced merchandise remains the same, of course.  We have increased our platforms to include Revolut besides PayPal; and BOV Mobile payments if you are in Malta. If you are present in our shop, our BOV Cards machine accepts all international and Maltese cards. You're spoilt for choice.

We will always have some bargains on - just look up our bargains corner from time to time, our check out our website for any ongoing deals.

That's it! Happy Shopping!

Back to School - Autumn is here!

 

Schools in the performance / arts communities are reopening in Malta and this is such a relief. Although children have to wear masks, which can be a bit difficult when the activity involves strenuous exercise, it is always better than not being able to continue with tuition at all.

At The Ballet Shop, we have stocked up for all forms of dancewear for different forms of dance, but remember that if you have a uniform requirement for a particular school, you need to be specific about what it is you need.  The colour and material of the leotard is important, for example. If you are in Malta, we are also happy to have you over for a fitting, especially since pointe shoes require proper fitting, for example.

Ballet shoes, tights and socks, hair nets, bunholders - these are universal. A pink bunholder is the same in any school as is a pink wrap-over cardigan (ok you might be asked to choose between fleece and normal knitted cardigan); hairbands are the same colour as the leotards (usually) and tights, socks and shoes are invariably pink.

Head over to our shop now and see if there's anything that works for you!

The first few weeks of school term ...

So the first few weeks of school term have kicked off well, with people coming to the shop to get their uniforms.  Many people still prefer to fit their children with the appropriate uniforms, rather than order online, simply because they are growing so fast.  Some people think it is hardly worth their while ordering online and receiving items by post.  That is a great pity since it can save them time and money - of course, if they know the size.

It is important to fit the child well - many make the mistake of taking items which are far too big, or stretch out items which are far too small.  Ill-fitting clothes are dangerous in dance, as they can cause discomfort or, worse, injury.  This is especially true of footwear, since they can cause the dancer to trip and fall, or they can so badly cramp the feet that the work is not carried out properly and correctly.

Receive a proper fitting and contact us for an appointment.  You can also find us on facebook ! 

Our mini-shoes are finally on sale!

... We have found the time to upload them to the website, after having to edit the available images which were not of sufficient quality!   So you can now buy the pointe shoes and the mini soft shoes keyrings, usually available in most colours. You can either buy them in pairs or alone, and you can place them on display or attach them to a keyring - whatever suits you best.

If you are a school and wish to give these out to your students, or to sell them from your shop, please contact us for bulk discounts.  The same also applies if you want to order in bulk.

These items are excellent gift ideas but also make great souvenirs, e.g. at the end of a party, be it for young children, young adults, or a gathering of dancers.

We hope to be able to add more models soon - watch this space!

Sansha Soprano Pointe Shoes 5W

We have this one last pair of Sansha Soprano pointe shoes, it being an end-of-the-line model.  It is in Sansha size 5W - being a wide fitting in European size 35 or UK size 2.5.  Please be sure to check your size before purchasing as we do not have any others in this model, it being an end-of-line model.

You can view and purchase the item on ebay.

Hurry, only 10 days of sale left!

Since we had decided to run a sale over the month of August, we have seen increased visits to the website, as well as some sales! We are delighted!

Do visit our website - read the blog here or simply just go shopping. We would be delighted to be of service to you! 

Sansha Chicago now on sale!

Our Sansha Chicago Unisex jazz pants are on sale!

We have a lot of these black jazz pants on sale and cannot wait to get them over to you! We want to clear our stocks for even more new exciting items.  These are a durable pair of pants - you'll want more than one for your dance wardrobe! You can use them for all forms of movement - be it dance, drama, aerobis, walking - or even just hanging out! The quality of the material means you can do floor-work without the fear of wearing a hole in them.

Remember, we post free to Malta and have very reasonable rates worldwide. We accept Paypal, the safest way to pay!

More and more items ... more and more discounts!

So yesterday I spent some time uploading products to the blog, now that I am happy with the layout and many pages of text.  There's lots to read and I am really pleased with the way the products are show-cased - the Venedor theme on Wordpress is great! 

The shop now has ballet shoes, pointe shoes, jazz shoes and some regulation uniforms for younger children.  We will also set up a bargains corner with our end-of-line items, or things we need to move so that we clear our shelves for more.

Do contact us if you do not see something you need - we are always happy to help!  The site also has a blog, which pretty much reflects this one - but not always!

Happy shopping! 

Sansha Tivoli Jazz shoes are now available online!

We are delighted that we have finally uploaded the first adult jazz shoes - Sansha's wonderful Tivoli jazz shoes.  We have both the leather and the canvas variation.

This is a very comfortable lace-up jazz shoe with split soles, and a leather patch to protect the pleats at the bottom. Slight low heel gives comfort and turning flexibility. It is also suitable for modern dance classes.

We stock the Medium width, but we can order Narrow and Wide for you.  Please contact us.

We stock these in black - other colours may be ordered - subject to availability.  Again it is best to contact us.

Note that Sansha sizes work as follows:

Size 1 = European size 31

Size 2 = European size 32 and so on.

You can check your size by contacting us or reading our page (FAQ) regarding sizes.

http://www.the-ballet-shop.com

Pointe Til You Drop: Pointe Shoes: How to Sew

We are always looking for really good instructions on how to sew your pointe shoes.  This is a really good article by a dance lover - have a coffee and read ..... then get ready to try it out!

Note, however, that this method sews elastics on the outside: this is ok for professionals to do when you use pointes for a very short period and are using them only for class. Students who will use these in exams and shows (and whose pointe shoes will last well longer than a professional's) are generally asked to sew these on the inside for a neater, well-groomed look.  If you choose to sew them on the inside, especially for exams and performances, make sure that your needle only takes the inner lining and not the outer satin.

Pointe Til You Drop: Pointe Shoes: How to Sew: First, have a cup of coffee and relax. Lay out all the stuff you need: ribbons, elastic, scissors, thread, needle(s). I like to use Bun...

Pointe Til You Drop: Hiatus

Not everyone can afford to take regular dance classes... some of us are students or just ordinary people with bills that cannot cope with the growing fees for classes and dancewear.  Here's one article you will love

Pointe Til You Drop: Hiatus: It's been three weeks since my last ballet class. In the past nine years, three weeks is the longest I've gone without dance. Now...

The Size Dilemma!

I think this is one of our more important posts for you who purchase items online!

Have a look at our very brief article, The Size Dilemma, and look at how you should be calculating your size!

Remember size is indeed very important when it comes to dancewear and dance shoes, as it can cause injury or lead to mistakes not being corrected! Injuries do heal but they sometimes remain a weakness - don't risk!



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New Website launched!

An astrologer has recently told us that, to paraphrase, the reason things endure is that they are still relevant. Or perhaps resilient. Or both.  And we have in fact enduring relevance - we are still here today, fifteen years later!

To celebrate, we have launched our new face - a brand new website!   To start, we are featuring a number of discounts, so as to let you take the advantage of our celebratory mood!

Our shop section brings you the best of the best, while our blog section will pretty much be repeated here. Do feel free to browse around and ask questions - but we do have a FAQ section in case you have questions that many people tend to ask!  We also accept comments on our blog  - both here and on the actual Shop Blog!

Finally you can contact us in order to answer any specific query you have which might not be on the generic website! Keep in touch! 

We now accept Payza!

As part of our commitment to opening up our sales to more of you out there, we have now begun to accept Payza!  This is another secure payment system, for your peace of mind, which does not reveal to us your credit card details. It secures financial peace of mind both ways.

With Paypal and Payza, we can send you an invoice - directly to your email address - where you can then confirm your shipping details etc. We will then ship out to you as soon as possible. We normally send out the invoice after verifying postage costs, so sometimes you will need to bear with us.

If you have queries, do contact us via email - our website is currently being revamped so we will appear offline for a while but you can check out our Facebook page.  We also have a page for our physical shop, Palkett, on which we also post some interesting deals!

Get out there and get your dancewear fast!

The first of our 15th anniversary discounts!

Good morning, and happy Sunday to all!

We are offering the first of our 15th-anniversary round of discounts - please see the image we have uploaded.

We are happy to have been of service to you for so long - this is part of our "Thank you!" to you!

Watch this space for more discounts!

Geraldine

This year, 2015, we are celebrating our 15th anniversary. In April 2000, I looked back at my dancing experience, "Nutcracker" at the Manoel Theatre, having performed the Dance of the Snowflakes and the Spanish Chocolates. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I did have to go through four pairs of pointe shoes - and the Shellac idea didn't work as 1. my feet were quite strong and 2. I'm not exactly a lightweight and, worst of all, 3. it damaged my ballet tights. I even went through a pair of Rusbal, which were very tough shoes. I decided to source my own directly from the manufacturers, since back then I was dancing some 3 - 4 times a week plus practising at home to keep up the strength.

Back then, the Internet did not have such a widespread presence in Malta - I think we were still on dial-up or just about changing over to ADSL.  A close friend of mine suggested that, therefore, I should make the hassle worth it by supplying my friends.  There was born the little business, which I then called En Pointe. As soon as my first order arrived, made of a mix of pointe shoes and ballet shoes as well as a couple of leotards, I began to ask around for interest.

Two years later, my teacher Ms Nina Winter (Zammit) suggested I speak to Elvia at Palkett, the Yada Shop. The uptake was immediate and I never looked back.  We have since been supplying a number of schools. Elvia has now retired, but I still liaise with the business she helped to create with Delina, who supplies me with YADA's uniforms and other custom-made dancewear.  Delina's sister, Rose, runs my shop beautifully at the College - were it not for her, I would be at a massive loss. Palkett is the physical shop that runs The Ballet Shop's business locally. The Ballet Shop ships both locally and abroad.  Shipping to Malta is free of charge, but buyers can also opt to collect their orders at Palkett.

In view of the 15th anniversary, The Ballet Shop - and even Palkett - will be offering a number of discounts which we will be publishing from time to time - watch our space.  If you want to be updated via email whenever we have an offer (which we do regularly, and not just on occasions like this - these are the special ones) please send us a private message with your email address. We will be getting back to you shortly! 

Time for more discounts!

Here at The Ballet Shop we feel it is high time to clear certain items and make room for new goods.  Innovation is important! So we have placed certain pointe shoes on sale - they are the fantastic canvas pointe shoes.  Canvas pointe shoes give a more matte look, which is perfect for those who do not quite like the satiny sheen.  If you are one of these people, or if you simply want a spare pair of pointe shoes at a very reasonable price, then I suggest you take a look at our shop on ebay. Don't forget that we give postage discounts on multiple orders and we ship worldwide!